I know giving up the 4 goal lead was not the best thing to do but I agree with Chico that the way the Devils won this game may have been better overall then just rolling over these guys. Clemmensen had a tough night but it really made me happy to see the guys step it up after the game was tied and pull this one out. Obviously they averted disaster but it really feels like these guys are playing for one another. They are a TEAM and the benefits of that are starting to show.

The officiating was beyond awful. Just a horrible game by the refs. In fact the only call they got right imo was the no goal that was eventually reversed.

Welcome back Mr. Bobby Holik. He played with a lot of jam tonight and it was like a throw back game of sorts seeing that #16 plow down everything in his way.

Mr. Gionta you are a point a game player.

I'll go easy on the Queen cause man did he have no help out there tonight but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy every single one of those goals that went past him. I jokingly asked for 7 or 8 goals before the game and I actually got what I wanted. Didn't think we would need them but I'll take it. Serves his ass right for disgracing our home rink after game 5 last year.

I'm not going to kill Clemmensen either. Those last 2 goals were tough but even Marty gives up stinkers. This is his first taste of the big show and he is going to have games like this. If we get one of these games for every ten like he just played, I'll take that all day. All that matters is that he found a way to stop the puck after it was tied at 5 and came up with a couple of stops after the Devils had regained the lead.

Sorry for the long post but I'm as happy as a pig in sh*t right now. This was a long time coming and even though it's regular season, these games always mean a lot. Hopefully it's becoming clearer now but this is a good Devils team and they're only going to get better as Rolston finds his game. Hopefully Zajac is ok as well.

There will be drinks tonight

Good post bro, spot on in pretty much every regard. I'm giddy myself- this was just a HUGE win for us. I went from wanting to smash the sh*it out of the first object I could find to absolute elation again in a span of about 20 seconds! I'll be in the house tomorrow for dollar dog night against Buffalo- hopefully we can keep it going with Weekes in net!

Missed the domination. Only saw the collapse and then the 3 quick goals.

I know a few guys on this baord wanted to go after Redden. I got to see this guy a lot in Ottawa and he just lost it three years ago, yet the Rangers offered him a deal that was twice as bad as the one Rafalski got. I mean 6 years, 39 million. Thank goodness Lou didn't go after him. I hope his performance tonight showed how bad this guy is. That contract could kill the Rangers long-term, and hopefully no idiot GM helps them out by trading for him.

Now I've been a huge doubter of Zubrus. Never do you see Lou just give 6 years to anyone. Some people saw his as Gomez' replacement and others laughed at the idea. Well a season and a third into his contract he has pretty much replaced Gomez centering Gionta and Elias. And doing a great job during this run I might add.

As for Gionta? How many people are now in favour of re-signing the guy? About three weeks ago you probably wouldn't find a single person on this forum, but he has been outstanding playing with Elias and Zubrus. He seems like a player who just needs to build some chemistry with his linemates and he has found it here.

Lastly, you know Brodeur's ego has been damaged. The team has won 9 out of 10 and they are showing they don't "need" Brodeur to be successful. I'd imagine Marty wanted this team to be in the playoff picture for him to dramatically return. I bet he never saw this. I am not saying we don't need Marty at all, but you know his ego must be going down a bit.

Edited by devilsrule33, 12 December 2008 - 10:41 PM.

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"The Stanley Cup has fallen from the Stars. The new millennium has its first Stanley Cup Champion, and it's the New Jersey Devils." Mike Miller calling the Devils winning the Stanley Cup.

"It goes to the captain and then there are handoffs during a skate around the ice" Mike Emrick as Scott Stevens is being presented the Stanley Cup.

Judging by the post-game interview, Zajac looks good to go. He said he was held out for precautionary purposes after he got hit in the face (didn't say if it was a stick or a puck or what). He also said that he expects to play tomorrow. He kinda laughed when it was even asked whether he would play.

i'm still wondering how you massively outplay a team for most of the game and end up with 4 power plays to the opponent's 9.

i'm hoping to read something by TG about zajac - he was definitely cut either by the hit or the fight, but he did play shifts after the fight, didn't he? my guess is precaution about a head injury and hopefully he'll be back soon.

Zajac was interviewed on the post-game and said he was fine- just a deep cut and a fat lip. He didn't return as a precaution.

Didn't read the thread, just throwing my 2 cents of happiness(well it'll be annoyance because the happiness is obvious) in.

1 cent) how does Toronto overule that kicking motion when the ref definitively waived it as no goal? The Devils have done way less with their skates and had goals waived off before with the ref making no call either way.

2 cent) How does Parise get slashed on a breakaway and no call and they call a phantom holding away from the puck 30 seconds later? That was a bad reffing microcosm.

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Your unconditional rejection of violence makes you smugly think of yourselves as noble, as enlightened, but in reality it is nothing less than abject moral capitulation to evil. Unconditional rejection of self-defense, because you think its a supposed surrender to violence, leaves you no resort but begging for mercy or offering appeasement.

-Terry Goodkind

Sex Panther cologne -- 50 percent of the time, it works every time.

-Anchorman

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Missed the domination. Only saw the collapse and then the 3 quick goals.

I know a few guys on this baord wanted to go after Redden. I got to see this guy a lot in Ottawa and he just lost it three years ago, yet the Rangers offered him a deal that was twice as bad as the one Rafalski got. I mean 6 years, 39 million. Thank goodness Lou didn't go after him. I hope his performance tonight showed how bad this guy is. That contract could kill the Rangers long-term, and hopefully know idiot GM helps them out by trading for him.

Now I've been a huge doubter of Zubrus. Never do you see Lou just give 6 years to anyone. Some people saw his as Gomez' replacement and others laughed at the idea. Well a season and a third into his contract he has pretty much replaced Gomez centering Gionta and Elias. And doing a great job during this run I might add.

As for Gionta? How many people are now in favour of re-signing the guy? About three weeks ago you probably wouldn't find a single person on this forum, but he has been outstanding playing with Elias and Zubrus. He seems like a player who just needs to build some chemistry with his linemates and he has found it here.

Lastly, you know Brodeur's ego has been damaged. The team has won 9 out of 10 and they are showing they don't "need" Brodeur to be successful. I'd imagine Marty wanted this team to be in the playoff picture for him to dramatically return. I bet he never saw this. I am not saying we don't need Marty at all, but you know his ego must be going down a bit.

You might be right about that, but in the end it's Marty. He and the team both know how important he is and what he means to the past and future success of this franchise. Both he and the team both know we're not winning without him in the playoffs. If anything, he lost his license to command playing 78 freakin' games a year and that's it.

Didn't read the thread, just throwing my 2 cents of happiness(well it'll be annoyance because the happiness is obvious) in.

1 cent) how does Toronto overule that kicking motion when the ref definitively waived it as no goal? The Devils have done way less with their skates and had goals waived off before with the ref making no call either way.

2 cent) How does Parise get slashed on a breakaway and no call and they call a phantom holding away from the puck 30 seconds later? That was a bad reffing microcosm.

This was one of the most poorly-officiated games I've seen in a long time. That slashing call on Langenbrunner? Interference on Holik? The hold on Mottau? All extremely weak calls. And Parise basically gets punched in the head behind the play, he reacts by slashing Voros and Voros slashes him right back ... only Parise gets a call?

Your unconditional rejection of violence makes you smugly think of yourselves as noble, as enlightened, but in reality it is nothing less than abject moral capitulation to evil. Unconditional rejection of self-defense, because you think its a supposed surrender to violence, leaves you no resort but begging for mercy or offering appeasement.

-Terry Goodkind

Sex Panther cologne -- 50 percent of the time, it works every time.

-Anchorman

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Good post bro, spot on in pretty much every regard. I'm giddy myself- this was just a HUGE win for us. I went from wanting to smash the sh*it out of the first object I could find to absolute elation again in a span of about 20 seconds! I'll be in the house tomorrow for dollar dog night against Buffalo- hopefully we can keep it going with Weekes in net!

Thank you sir. It's weird because I'd usually flip out over blowing a 4 goal lead but I was kind of interested to see how they would respond when things got rough. I really didn't see them losing this game either way but there is no doubt that quick ass goal to put them back up really helped get things going again.

Last year in the regular season and playoffs the Devils found every way possible to lose a close game against these guys. They were flirting with that crap again but found a way to get it done. It might not have been pretty all the time but this has got to be one of the more satisfying wins that we have had in a long while.

" 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1!! And the oldest trophy competed for in North America, LORD STANLEY'S CUP, has made it's way through the Lincoln Tunnel! To the Meadowlands! To the Garden State! THE NEW JERSEY DEVILS ARE THE 1995 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!" Mike Miller, June 24th, 1995

" I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the dominion" Frederick Arthur, Lord Stanley of Preston

Thank you sir. It's weird because I'd usually flip out over blowing a 4 goal lead but I was kind of interested to see how they would respond when things got rough. I really didn't see them losing this game either way but there is no doubt that quick ass goal to put them back up really helped get things going again.

Last year in the regular season and playoffs the Devils found every way possible to lose a close game against these guys. They were flirting with that crap again but found a way to get it done. It might not have been pretty all the time but this has got to be one of the more satisfying wins that we have had in a long while.

And that has been the big difference between this year's team and last year's team- this year's team has been finding ways to win games like this. The Philly and Montreal wins last week would also have been losses last year- no doubt in my mind, especially with Marty out. But this year, they have shown that they are never out of a game, and that's a great quality for a team to have. It's refreshing to see them with that kind of attitude again.

On The Fly showed the post-game interview Elias had with Trautwig. It looked like Elias wanted to punch him in the face. A paraphrased sample of the banter:

Trautwig: The Rangers come back from 5-1 to tie the score and the body language on the Devils bench is just terrible.Elias: I don't think our body language was that bad.Trautwig: Well, you scored 11 seconds later. That's the point.Elias: Yeah, that is the point.

I have been to over two hundred devils games. and i cant help but say that this is one of the best, if not the best, games i have ever seen. i have a splitting headache and my voice is gone. i called some guy a jerk that had skin tight jeans and a mohawk and a tight rangers jersey. some HUUUUUGE b!tch in a gomez jersey told me the devils suck when the rangers made it 5-2 so i politely told her to sit down because she was a fat ass. anyway.... the crowd was great, the game on the ice was great, and that was AMAZING

I have been to over two hundred devils games. and i cant help but say that this is one of the best, if not the best, games i have ever seen. i have a splitting headache and my voice is gone. i called some guy a jerk that had skin tight jeans and a mohawk and a tight rangers jersey. some HUUUUUGE b!tch in a gomez jersey told me the devils suck when the rangers made it 5-2 so i politely told her to sit down because she was a fat ass. anyway.... the crowd was great, the game on the ice was great, and that was AMAZING

Agree 100%. I can't remember a better game. Because it was the Rangers made it oh so sweet. Was there nothing better than having those Rangers fans come to life when it was 5-3, gloat when it was 5-4 then start high fiving each other and getting typically obnoxious when it was 5-5... for all of about 20 seconds. MAN IT FELT GOOD to just KILL their spirit tonight. You couldn't have scripted a better torment to Rangers fans than what happened tonight. I'm going to enjoy this one for a long, long time.

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"What's the difference between a catfish and Rangers Fan? One is a low life bottom feeder that lives on the feces of others. The other is a fish"

Anyone hear Daneyko on the postgame when he watched the replay of Girardi smashing Zajac's face? Dano's whole head was turning red, he was so mad. He said he would've went after Girardi if he was still playing. He was disappointed nobody followed up.

Agree 100%. I can't remember a better game. Because it was the Rangers made it oh so sweet. Was there nothing better than having those Rangers fans come to life when it was 5-3, gloat when it was 5-4 then start high fiving each other and getting typically obnoxious when it was 5-5... for all of about 20 seconds. MAN IT FELT GOOD to just KILL their spirit tonight. You couldn't have scripted a better torment to Rangers fans than what happened tonight. I'm going to enjoy this one for a long, long time.